The politics of hope

What happens when people actually qualified for the role get into positions of power...? The UK (and perhaps the US) is about to find out.

… but politics aside, it’s hard to express how rare it is to have a Prime Minister at the helm who has actually had any real world experience leading anything.

… and whatever you may feel about Starmer or Labour’s policies, as a former head of a large organisation (where by all accounts I’ve seen, he was an exemplary leader) I am already impressed with his approach to some difficult challenges.

Take James Timpson’s appointment as Minister for Prisons, Parole & Probation.

Here is a man who, through his upbringing (in a household always bursting with foster children) and through his professional life (as head of Timpson’s key/shoe stores) has developed and demonstrated a rich mix of compassion and leadership skills making him uniquely qualified for the almost impossible task of wresting control of and reforming our criminal rehabilitation platform.

Everyone offends a some time in their life (yes, you too - I’ve seen your driving!) and everyone is a product of their environment …

… so while, of course, some in prison have conducted grotesque acts and should probably rot there, a great many (perhaps the majority) have not.

To the many who end up there as, in part, victims of their circumstance, society owes them hope no less than we owe the hope of a welfare state to those who fall out of work.

If you don’t want ex-offenders to become re-offenders you have to offer hope.

This is what people like Timpson — and charities like Key4Life — know.

… and so back to the politics of hope.

What’s critical about this appointment is that it has gone to someone who is actually qualified to do the job: who understands the challenges, recognises the solutions and is presumably not just greasing his pole to get to the next rung of the political ladder.

The politics of hope is about finding people who have the skills to do the job well — regardless of ideology — instead of horse-trading appointments for votes, donations or column-inches.

Yes, I’m gonna have to pay 20% more than I had budgeted for school fees (see yesterday’s rant)….

… but fuck me if it’s not worth it for there to be a little hope for some of the most vulnerable, damaged and lost people in our society.

✌️